Act 5, Scene 4

Another Part of the Field.

[Alarums. Excursions. Enter King Henry, Prince Henry, Lancaster, and Westmoreland.]
King Henry IV
2620 I pr'ythee,
2621 Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleedest too much.—
2622 Lord John of Lancaster, go you unto him.
Prince John of Lancaster
2623 Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.
Prince Hal
2624 I do beseech your Majesty, make up,
2625 Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.
King Henry IV
2626 I will do so.—
2627 My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.
Earl of Westmoreland
2628 Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.
Prince Hal
2629 Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help:
2630 And God forbid, a shallow scratch should drive
2631 The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
2632 Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on,
2633 And rebels' arms triumph in massacres!
Prince John of Lancaster
2634 We breathe too long:—come, cousin Westmoreland,
2635 Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come.
[Exeunt Lancaster and Westmoreland.]
Prince Hal
2636 By Heaven, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster;
2637 I did not think thee lord of such a spirit:
2638 Before, I loved thee as a brother, John;
2639 But now I do respect thee as my soul.
King Henry IV
2640 I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point
2641 With lustier maintenance than I did look for
2642 Of such an ungrown warrior.
Prince Hal
2643 O, this boy
2644 Lends mettle to us all!
[Exit.]
[Alarums. Enter Douglas.]
Earl of Douglas
2645 Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads:
2646 I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
Earl of Douglas
2647 That wear those colours on them.—What art thou,
2648 That counterfeit'st the person of a king?
King Henry IV
2649 The King himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart
2650 So many of his shadows thou hast met,
2651 And not the very King. I have two boys
2652 Seek Percy and thyself about the field:
2653 But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
2654 I will assay thee; so, defend thyself.
Earl of Douglas
2655 I fear thou art another counterfeit;
2656 And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king:
2657 But mine I'm sure thou art, whoe'er thou be,
2658 And thus I win thee.
[They fight; the King being in danger, re-enter Prince Henry.]
Prince Hal
2659 Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
2660 Never to hold it up again! the spirits
2661 Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms:
2662 It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee;
2663 Who never promiseth but he means to pay.—
[They fight: Douglas flies.]
Prince Hal
2664 Cheerly, my lord: how fares your Grace?
2665 Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
2666 And so hath Clifton: I'll to Clifton straight.
King Henry IV
2667 Stay, and breathe awhile:
2668 Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion;
2669 And show'd thou makest some tender of my life,
2670 In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
Prince Hal
2671 O God, they did me too much injury
2672 That ever said I hearken'd for your death!
2673 If it were so, I might have let alone
2674 Th' insulting hand of Douglas over you,
2675 Which would have been as speedy in your end
2676 As all the poisonous potions in the world,
2677 And saved the treacherous labour of your son.
King Henry IV
2678 Make up to Clifton: I'll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey.
[Exit.]
[Enter Hotspur.]
Hotspur
2679 If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.
Prince Hal
2680 Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name.
Hotspur
2681 My name is Harry Percy.
Prince Hal
2682 Why, then I see
2683 A very valiant rebel of the name.
2684 I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
2685 To share with me in glory any more:
2686 Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
2687 Nor can one England brook a double reign,
2688 Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.
Hotspur
2689 Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come
2690 To end the one of us; and would to God
2691 Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
Prince Hal
2692 I'll make it greater ere I part from thee;
2693 And all the budding honours on thy crest
2694 I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.
Hotspur
2695 I can no longer brook thy vanities.
[They fight.]
[Enter Falstaff.]
Sir John Falstaff
2696 Well said, Hal! to it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy's
2697 play here, I can tell you.
[Re-enter Douglas; he fights with Falstaff, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit Douglas. Hotspure is wounded, and falls.]
Hotspur
2698 O Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth!
2699 I better brook the loss of brittle life
2700 Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
2701 They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh:
2702 But thoughts the slave of life, and life Time's fool,
2703 And Time, that takes survey of all the world,
2704 Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
2705 But that the earthy and cold hand of death
2706 Lies on my tongue: no, Percy, thou art dust,
2707 And food for—
[Dies.]
Prince Hal
2708 For worms, brave Percy: fare thee well, great heart!
2709 Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
2710 When that this body did contain a spirit,
2711 A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
2712 But now two paces of the vilest earth
2713 Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
2714 Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
2715 If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
2716 I should not make so dear a show of zeal:
2717 But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
2718 And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
2719 For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
2720 Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to Heaven!
2721 Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
2722 But not remember'd in thy epitaph!—
[Sees Falstaff on the ground.]
Prince Hal
2723 What, old acquaintance? could not all this flesh
2724 Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
2725 I could have better spared a better man:
2726 O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
2727 If I were much in love with vanity!
2728 Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
2729 Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
2730 Embowell'd will I see thee by-and-by:
2731 Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
[Exit.]
[Rising.]
Sir John Falstaff
2732 Embowell'd! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave
2733 to powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to
2734 counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too.
2735 Counterfeit! I lie; I am no counterfeit: to die, is to be a
2736 counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the
2737 life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth,
2738 is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed.
2739 The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I
2740 have saved my life.—
2741 Zwounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: how,
2742 if he should counterfeit too, and rise? by my faith, I am afraid he
2743 would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure; yea,
2744 and I'll swear I kill'd him. Why may not he rise as well as I?
2745 Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore,
2746 sirrah, with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.
[Takes Hotspur on his hack.]
[Re-enter Prince Henry and Lancaster.]
Prince Hal
2747 Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd
2748 Thy maiden sword.
Prince John of Lancaster
2749 But, soft! whom have we here?
2750 Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?
Prince Hal
2751 I did; I saw him dead, breathless and bleeding
2752 Upon the ground.—
2753 Art thou alive? or is it fantasy
2754 That plays upon our eyesight? I pr'ythee, speak;
2755 We will not trust our eyes without our ears.
2756 Thou art not what thou seem'st.
Sir John Falstaff
2757 No, that's certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not
2758 Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy!
[Throwing the body down.]
Sir John Falstaff
2759 if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let
2760 him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or
2761 duke, I can assure you.
Prince Hal
2762 Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and saw thee dead.
Sir John Falstaff
2763 Didst thou?— Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!—
2764 I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but
2765 we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury
2766 clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should
2767 reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon
2768 my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were
2769 alive, and would deny it, zwounds, I would make him eat a piece of
2770 my sword.
Prince John of Lancaster
2771 This is the strangest tale that ever I heard.
Prince Hal
2772 This is the strangest fellow, brother John.—
2773 Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back:
2774 For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
2775 I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.—
[A retreat is sounded.]
Prince Hal
2776 The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours.
2777 Come, brother, let's to th' highest of the field,
2778 To see what friends are living, who are dead.
[Exeunt Prince Henry and Lancaster.]
Sir John Falstaff
2779 I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God
2780 reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge,
2781 and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.
[Exit, bearing off the body.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2624archaic vocab
“make up, Lest your retirement do amaze”
'Make up' means advance back into the thick of fighting, not leave. 'Retirement' means retreating from the field; 'amaze' means throw into panic or bewilderment. Hal urges his wounded father to press forward, warning that the King's withdrawal from the battle line will demoralize his own troops.
TLN 2641archaic vocab
“lustier maintenance than I did look for Of such an ungrown warrior”
'Lustier maintenance' means more vigorous bearing or conduct in battle; 'maintenance' here is the noun form of 'maintain' in the sense of 'hold one's ground.' The King is marvelling that young John of Lancaster fought harder than expected of someone not yet fully grown. Henry IV praises his younger son's unexpected valor in the chaos of Shrewsbury.
TLN 2644wordplay
“Lends mettle to us all”
'Mettle' means courage and spirit, but the word is a variant spelling of 'metal,' and Shakespeare consistently exploits the double sense: John's spirit is also the material substance — the steel — that strengthens everyone around him. The pun was standard in Elizabethan English, where the two spellings were interchangeable.
TLN 2645classical allusion
“they grow like Hydra's heads”
The Hydra was a many-headed swamp monster from Greek myth: when one head was cut off, two grew back in its place. Douglas, encountering a third knight dressed as King Henry IV after killing two earlier decoys, makes the same comparison — no matter how many 'kings' he cuts down, more appear. The King's tactic of dressing multiple nobles in the royal coat is what provokes the allusion.
TLN 2646historical topical
“I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them”
Douglas speaks of himself in the third person ('the Douglas'), which was a Scottish aristocratic usage indicating that he is the head of Clan Douglas, not just a man called Douglas. 'Colours' means the heraldic livery — the King's coat of arms painted on the surcoat worn over armour. Douglas has already killed Sir Walter Blunt and at least one other knight wearing the King's livery, mistaking them for Henry IV.
historical The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403)
TLN 2654archaic vocab
“I will assay thee; so, defend thyself”
'Assay' (here used as a verb) means to test or try, especially in combat. Henry IV is saying he will put Douglas to the proof — make trial of him in a fight — rather than flee. The word comes from the same root as 'essay' (an attempt) and from metallurgy, where 'assay' means to test a metal for purity.
TLN 2668archaic vocab
“Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion”
'Opinion' means public reputation and the esteem in which one is held, not merely a private belief. The King tells Hal that by rescuing him from Douglas, the prince has won back his standing in the world's eyes — the good name he had 'lost' through his years of tavern idling. The line marks the public, political dimension of Hal's redemption: it is not just a private reconciliation between father and son.
TLN 2669archaic vocab
“thou makest some tender of my life”
'Tender' here is a noun meaning regard, care, or solicitude — not the modern adjective meaning soft or gentle. 'Thou makest some tender of my life' means you show some care for my continued living. The King is acknowledging, with some emotional reserve ('some'), that Hal does value his father's life after all.
TLN 2686cultural context
“Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere”
In the Ptolemaic astronomy that Elizabethans learned at school, each planet or star was fixed in its own revolving crystal sphere surrounding the Earth. Two stars cannot occupy the same sphere without colliding and destroying the orderly motion of the heavens. Hal uses this to say there is not room in one kingdom for both him and Hotspur to pursue honour -- one must give way.
TLN 2693rhetorical device
“all the budding honours on thy crest I'll crop, to make a garland for my head”
Hal uses the extended metaphor of a harvest: Hotspur's honours are flowers budding on his heraldic crest, and Hal will 'crop' (cut) them like flowers to weave his own victor's garland. The metaphor makes war into an act of cultivation and transforms Hotspur's martial glory into something that literally grows on Hal's own head when he kills him.
TLN 2698rhetorical device
“thou hast robb'd me of my youth! I better brook the loss of brittle life Than those proud titles thou hast won of me”
Dying Hotspur grieves not for his life — which he dismisses as 'brittle' — but for his honour: the glorious titles and reputation Hal has taken by defeating him. 'Brook' means endure or tolerate. The speech inverts normal expectations: he shrugs at death ('brittle life') but rails at the loss of the fame that constituted his identity.
TLN 2709rhetorical device
“Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk! When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound”
Hal's eulogy over Hotspur turns on the paradox of physical and spiritual scale. 'Ill-weaved' means badly woven -- a fabric with loose threads that contracts (shrinks); ambition that was poorly constructed unravels and diminishes. While Hotspur lived, his spirit was too vast for a whole kingdom; now his body needs only 'two paces of the vilest earth.' The contrast is the classic memento mori observation: the person who once seemed too great for England is now smaller than a grave.
TLN 2715syntax grammar
“If thou wert sensible of courtesy, I should not make so dear a show of zeal”
'Sensible' means capable of sensation or feeling — literally able to perceive. Hal says: if Hotspur were able to feel the honour of being treated courteously, Hal would not need to make such a visibly intense ('dear') show of his respect. Because Hotspur is dead and cannot appreciate the gesture, Hal explains that he performs the funeral rites for his own sake rather than for thanks. The word 'dear' means heartfelt or costly, not the modern 'beloved.'
TLN 2717archaic vocab
“let my favours hide thy mangled face”
'Favours' here means a plume or ornamental token worn in a hat or helmet, not kindness or goodwill. Hal is saying he will take a scarf or feather from his own helmet and lay it over Hotspur's disfigured face as a mark of respect — an act of military courtesy shown to a fallen enemy of high rank.
TLN 2730cultural context
“Embowell'd will I see thee by-and-by”
To 'embowel' (or 'disembowel' — also called 'embalming') means to remove the internal organs of a corpse before burial as a method of preservation, especially for a nobleman whose body must lie in state before burial. Hal expects to bury Falstaff, so he promises to have the body 'embowell'd' — prepared for honourable interment. Falstaff, overhearing, is horrified by the prospect and rises at once.
TLN 2739rhetorical device
“The better part of valour is discretion”
Falstaff inverts the proverb that 'discretion is the better part of valour' -- normally meaning that caution is the intelligent side of courage. Here Falstaff uses it to justify having played dead: he argues that staying alive by feigning death is the truly courageous act, since courage without survival gains nothing. The line has become one of Shakespeare's best-known sayings, often misquoted as if it were straight wisdom rather than Falstaff's self-serving rationalisation.
TLN 2747archaic vocab
“full bravely hast thou flesh'd Thy maiden sword”
A 'maiden sword' is a sword that has never drawn blood — a weapon still 'virgin,' not yet bloodied in combat. To 'flesh' a sword (or a hound) means to give it its first taste of blood. Hal is complimenting his younger brother John on having blooded his sword in his first real battle. The same term was used for hounds given their first taste of quarry's blood to train them for the hunt.
TLN 2757wordplay
“I am not a double man”
Falstaff puns on 'double man' in two senses. First, he denies being a phantom or apparition — a 'double' or ghostly duplicate of himself (Hal had just asked if Falstaff was real or 'fantasy'). Second, he exploits the visual joke: he is carrying Hotspur's body on his back, so he literally appears as two men — one enormous figure with another man's legs dangling. He is not a 'double man' (ghost), he claims, while being visually one body carrying another.
TLN 2773archaic vocab
“bring your luggage nobly on your back”
'Luggage' in Elizabethan English meant awkward, heavy baggage — anything cumbersome to carry. Hal uses it mockingly of Hotspur's body on Falstaff's back: Falstaff's 'evidence' for having killed Hotspur is the corpse itself, which he must lug (heave, drag) to show the king. The word also carries the implication of the false credit Falstaff is about to claim: a burden he has no right to.